My Brother's Keeper
by aledagio
Summary: They were twins.  They knew it in the unspoken words and shared faces and shared pain.  But what happens when that pain almost breaks one?  Does the other break away or does he waste away?  Brotherly AmeCan


_Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"_

_"I don't know," he replied, "Am I my brother's keeper?"_

Prologue

Life was simple for Alfred at the age of four.

Mommy was gone. Daddy said she was up in heaven with all the angels and at night would give him kisses (that's why he had so many freckles, angel kisses).

"Why is Mommy in heaven?"

"Because Mommy got very sick," Daddy would say and he would look sad. But he always smiled again and everything was alright because then they got ice cream.

Daddy loved Alfred very much. Daddy talked different from all the other moms and dads. Daddy was gone a whole lot because he had to work so that they could all be happy.

Mattie was Alfred's brother. They were twins. People would always smile at them and say nice things like they were "cute". Alfred wasn't cute but he had a feeling Mattie was. Mattie looked kinda like a girl and had pretty hair. He was really quiet (he was the best at hide and seek) and was really weak so Alfred had to protect him.

Alfred loved Mattie. They didn't have many friends, they always had to move because of Daddy's job. But it didn't matter because they always had each other. During the day Alfred would look after his little brother (younger by a minute) and at night Alfred would cuddle up to Mattie when he was scared. Alfred didn't understand why other brothers and sisters fought. When Mattie hurt Alfred hurt. When Alfred hurt Mattie hurt. They were twins and though Alfred couldn't quite understand what it meant he could feel it when they wrestled and huddled under a blanket and talked almost without speaking.

It was just Alfred, Mattie, and Daddy.

One day Alfred and Mattie were playing. They were rowdy and came back tousled and bruised but happy. Daddy scolded them and made them take a bath. Days passed.

Mattie's bruises wouldn't go away.

One hospital trip. One hospital trip was all that was needed to forever shatter life's simplicity for Alfred.

The hospital was yellow and unnatural and made Alfred's nose wrinkle at the smell. Shivers traveled down his arms when he looked up from the white tiled floor to the people laying on the beds, wheezing, and surrounded by large machines that beeped creepily, and..sad. Alfred quickly looked back down at his feet and the clean floor.

Mattie was put in a hospital bed. Alfred had to stand on his tiptoes to see him. The bed was huge and looked like it was swallowing his twin in white blankets. When Alfred saw the little tubes sticking from Mattie's arms he felt pin pricks on his skin. They had stuck a needle in his arms that sucked out the blood from him like the monsters in Alfred's dreams would do. The nurse told Mattie he was a good boy when he didn't cry or complain. Alfred did.

"What's wrong with him, Daddy?" he pulled at the pants beside him.

"Shh, that's what we're going to find out," Daddy turned back to Mattie and patted his hair and whispered how big of a boy he was and how proud of him Daddy felt.

Alfred frowned. Daddy never told him he was a big boy. Why couldn't Alfred be in the bed too? He could be brave. Alfred started to pull himself over the rail but Daddy stopped him and told him to be a good boy like his brother.

Alfred's eyes started to water with frustration. "Daddy-,"

"Mr. Kirkland."

Daddy turned around and dislodged Alfred's grip from his pants to the doctor lady, "W-what's the matter with him? It's not anything serious is it?"

"...Mr. Kirkland I'm afraid...it's-,"

Then the doctor said some big word that Alfred didn't know. The word made Daddy's face go white and eyes go big. There was an expression on Daddy's face that he had never seen before, like Daddy was going...to cry. It made Alfred want to cry.

The doctor started to talk but Daddy looked like he wasn't listening. Alfred started to cry. "What is it, Daddy? Daddy!"

Daddy was mouthing that same word over and over. It would be said so many times in the next ten plus years that Alfred would know it by heart. Come to hate it with at the passion yet know it better than any book or even himself.

Leukemia.

**AN:I hope that you do not think I write like the beginning all the time. I was trying to convey a sense like it's almost from Alfred's point of view. **

**I will loosely model this after My Sister's Keeper, loosely being the key word. I've really been wanting to write just a brotherly AmeCan. **

**If I continue this there will be no incest, I do like AmeCan but in this they are blood-brothers. Who knows if there will be any couples...I'm open for suggestions. **

**Please review! If I get as many reviews as the last story I wrote I don't think I'll continue.**

**Disclaimer: I did not own any of that.**


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